I was on live radio talking about Pokemon Go; here are my thoughts as a first time interviewee

On Sunday morning (12:20am, gasp!), I was asked to talk about Pokemon Go, local and global startups, and how to write Chinese on your smartphone, on Triple R, a Melbourne Independent Radio (102.7FM). 3RRR is Australia’s oldest independent broadcaster and is based in Melbourne. They saw my article about Melbourne’s largest Pokemon Go walk and wanted to chat to me more about the phenomenon itself and what the walk was like.

It was my first live radio gig so it was interesting to see how it worked from the back end. Here are some of my thoughts:

1. The host contacted me on Friday to see if I was available and interested

2. The host SMS’d me a few hours before the segment to check I was ready between 12am and 12:30am

3. They called me about 10 minutes before to make sure my phone and volume levels worked

4. They called me 60 seconds before I was due on to put me on hold

5. When they started introducing me, I was still muted until the intro was over

6. The audio in my ears was crystal clear — as if I was listening to digital radio — so it was just like having a normal conversation

7. There was a constant ‘beep’ sound on my side — to time every 10 seconds perhaps?

Overall, it was a positive experience. You can listen to it on 3RRR’s Radio on Demand here and skip to 20:45 to hear my part. The whole two hour segment was about technology though, so if you like that, listen to the whole thing!

Matthew

August 6, 2016

I provided a comment to The Weekend Australian about the Pokemon Go phenomenon

5. Pokemon Go has today launched in Latin America and South East Asian countries like Singapore

Closer to home, The Weekend Australian wrote a piece in this weekend’s paper about the phenomenon that is Pokemon Go. Walkley-award winning journalist, Caroline Overington penned a piece summarising the past four week’s of action.

She interviewed a family that played together. She also interviewed me. I talked about why the game is so popular right now in addition to why it probably wouldn’t have succeeded five years ago.

You can read the full piece on The Weekend Australian website here; I’ve included the portion I was quoted in below. The piece was also on page 17 in the Inquirer section of the paper!

Matthew

August 3, 2016

I joined Melbourne’s largest Pokemon Go walk, here’s what it was like

On Saturday, 30th July, I –along with 400 other Melbourne Pokemon Go players — joined Melbourne’s biggest Pokemon Go walk since the launch of the game three weeks ago.

I penned a piece for GIZMODO Australia. You can find it here (Kotaku Australia also cross-posted it) and below:

I’m typing this while standing on a tram that’s going down Swanston Street — one of Melbourne’s main streets. There are five people playing the game near me. The two nearest to me are chatting away about their highest CP Pokemon, when we hear a loud thud. Someone has dropped their phone — it falls face up. I see a Pokedex on the screen and smile. Make that six people playing the game near me.

On a crispy 12 degrees Celsius afternoon on Saturday, 400 strangers gathered around Melbourne’s Federation Square for only one reason: Pokemon Go.